A Split Second or a Whole Lifetime
by Czarna Pantera
Summary: Laurel was many different things, but people tended to see only a small fraction of her and didn't even wonder what she was really like. As a lawyer she fought for the little guys long before she put on a mask. Eventually she took up her sister's mantle. She became the Black Canary. Another vigilante hero, which slowly dying city needed so much. Character study. 4x18 spoilers.
_Unlike form and another story rewritten from Polish (the original is called "Ułamek sekundy albo całe życie"). I didn't even watch 4x18 except for that scene in the hospital with Laurel and Oliver, but not like it prevented me from writting this short one-shot as a kind of comment to what had occured. Warnings: character death, breaking the fourth wall and the general rant about certain trends in social media influencing the final product.
_

 _The story was written for a writting challange Fikaton on Forum Literackie Mirriel._

 _Many thanks to_ _ **Perosha**_ _for beta._

 **A Split Second or a Whole Lifetime**

Your story is entwined with his story. Always. Everywhere. On every Earth, in every universe. You are a part of him, as much as he is a part of you.

* * *

You are many different things, but people tend to see only a small fraction of you and don't even wonder what you are really like.

As a lawyer you fight for the little guys long before you put on a mask.

A while back you used to think just like your father—that you don't need to go outside the law to find justice. With time, you discover that there might be another way. The path of the man in the hood, who appeared out of nowhere and took a place outside the established system.

Your relationship is very complicated. At first you are fascinated by him, then you start to have doubts, and eventually hate him, blaming for something he wasn't able to prevent from happening. But your paths still cross, again and again. He is always there. For you. For your family. And you don't even wonder or ask why. Until one moment. Eventually everything becomes clear, when you learn that Oliver and the Arrow are in fact the same person.

You have passion, inner fire, and an idealism you got from your father. Even when life comes down hard on you, you never give up. You suffer one hard blow after another—the betrayal of the people closest to you, which you can forgive but never forget, the addiction and depression, and the loss of the job which meant so much to you. But after all those trials, you emerge stronger.

Eventually you take up your sister's mantle. You become the Black Canary. Another vigilante hero, who your slowly dying city needs so much. Maybe even more than a district attorney assistant. It gets harder and harder to find a balance between those two sides of your life, but you wouldn't be able to give up either of them. Especially since at least one person out of your team of masked heroes should have a normal day job.

Due to a fatal twist of events your part ends before it has started for good.

In the short moment when your consciousness still clings to life, you are wondering what you are going to leave behind.

An emptiness and pain in your father's heart for sure. It is him you are thinking about in your very last moments. Not about your sister ( _you had no idea that you had seen her for the last time when she left with Rip Hunter on the time ship into the unknown_ ) or your mother, who walked out of your life ( _although things had been getting better between the two of you recently and you started to rebuild your relationship_ ). You know that losing you will destroy him. You don't even have a chance to say goodbye to each other...

And there is also Oliver. You are killed by his arrow, but you don't want him to blame himself for your death. It hasn't been his hand who steered it. It was Darhk who killed you.

He is still very important to you. And it seems that you still love him although he has hurt you so much. It doesn't come from naivety. You just miss times when everything was more simple—but you are well aware that those days are gone forever.

You have never been envious that he has affection for another woman. You moved on with your life and had no intention to wait in hope that he will come knocking on your door and propose to rebuild your relationship. You had other plans and dreams, and so many paths you could follow.

But your story ends here, when you die in this hospital bed. Your awareness separates from your body and you look down indifferently on the medics desperately trying to save your life. You notice the shocked expressions of your friends and Oliver's despair written all over his face. You don't regret your lost life because in this very moment ( _time of death: eleven-fifty-nine_ ) you do realize that finally you are free.

And you have no idea for how many you have become a hero.

* * *

There are many different worlds. But there is no place for you in the one which is created under the influence of tumblr, twitter and fan service.

 **The End**

* * *

 _ **A/N:** To keep is as short as possible—making an adaptation is translating the source material to other medium. It's about capturing its spirit and what it represents. Green Arrow story was always about modern Robin Hood, a guy with a bow fighting for those who can't protect themselves. And yes, Black Canary existed separately for years. But nevertheless she is an important part of Green Arrow's mythos._

 _The best adaptations don't cling desperately to the source material. One of the greatest example is the film "Master and Commander: The Far Side of The World" based on Patrick O'Brian novels, which adapts **eighteen** books at once. It takes main plot from one novel and contains dozens of little pieces from others, perfectly capturing the characters, their relationships and the spirit of the source. And what is the most important—respecting it. Granada's "Sherlock Holmes" with the titular character played by Jeremy Brett also makes major changes. As well as tv show "Magnificent Seven" based on the film under the same title. But they both grasp the atmosphere and what was the most important in the source material.  
_

 _"Arrow" also used to be a good adaptation. In fact season 1 took a lot from Mike Grell's run, started by "The Longbow Hunters", capturing the same atmosphere and down-to-earth reality, more grim and gritty than "traditional" Green Arrow. My problem with the show is not about changes. It's not even about the specific pairing or the lack of another pairing—actually I thought that Laurel's and Oliver's relationship was more interesting when they were friends and partners. It's about the fact that "Arrow" became "something else" and that "else" is not even well written. It fell apart on almost every level, starting from focusing heavily on romance drama instead of action, completely abandoning a procedural approach and focusing on building up overcomplicated main plots while neglecting what was the most important in Green Arrow's story—fight for the little guys. Not too mention that Ollie hardly ever shoots arrows. And that they made archery to look like a joke. Not to mention the general overuse of certain TV Tropes which got a tad tiresome after a while (Stuffed Into The Fridge, A Bad Guy Who Wants To Level the City in May, Death Serves as a Motivation etc._ _ _—it's not like I haven't heard that before_ ) and Because of the Reasons approach (one death is a fixed-point in the universe where there is everything from magic to time travel and where half a dozen characters cheated the death_ _—and some of them, like Ollie and Sara more than **once**_ _—do they even realize how ridiculous it sounds?)._

 _Do you still enjoy the show? That's fine. You think that Laurel was not an important character? That's your opinion. But the amount of hate in the fandom is just awful, especially when it's directed at the actors. Srsly people, just calm down.  
_

 _I'm also not overly fond of writing in fanservice. The writers should focus on telling their own story, they did quite good job in season 1 and 2 IMO, they failed miserably later on—due to various reasons, which I won't point out here as this author's note is already way too long. Just one more thing_ _—Laurel's death and how they decided to send her off wasn't actually that last straw for me. The way they_ _killed Amanda Waller off caused that I decided to take some break from watching the show as I couldn't enjoy it any more. Simple._


End file.
